In the past couple of days here at Sen Lin Hu, we have been busy!
Every afternoon, the villagers have an hour for an activity they choose every four days or so. Yesterday, the villagers got to choose a new activity. Choices included soccer, Chinese stamp making, Chinese Calligraphy, and Chinese cooking. In stamp making, the villagers carve their Chinese names to create a traditional Chinese “chop”–although we use erasers here at Sen Lin Hu instead of marble. In Calligraphy, the kids learn how to write characters with the calligraphy brush–in the correct stroke order of course! Cooking includes learning how to make 葱油饼 Scallion Pancakes and 饺子dumplings, among other simple Chinese dishes. Lastly, soccer teaches kids the vocabulary of playing a sport in Chinese–words like 加油–a word which you use to support someone, much like we use the word “GO!!!” on the sidelines of a sports match. Of course, all activities are taught in Chinese!
Other big events this week have included a Masquerade Party for our 晚上节目(Evening Program) on Tuesday night, where kids designed their own masks to wear to a dance party. The DJ played some popular American hits, as well as some popular songs here at Sen Lin Hu, like 对面的女孩看过来 “Girl over there, look over here”**. They seemed to have a great time, and many of them mentioned it as their favorite part of the day. Check out the photos below!
**The lyrics for this youtube video are in traditional Chinese characters. At Sen Lin Hu, we teach simplified.
Here’s pictures from the Masquerade ball, afternoon activities, as well as photos of villagers with their 家 “families” here at Sen Lin Hu. During lunch and dinner the kids eat with their assigned families, which usually have a 爸爸(father)， 妈妈(mother)，and sometimes a 奶奶 (grandmother) or 爷爷(grandfather). Of course there are countless 兄弟姐妹 brothers and sisters too!
After a relaxing day of canoeing / swimming / card games under the sun, everyone wonders: what’s for supper tonight? Home-made dumplings by villagers!
For evening activity, we had Moomba! Villagers had to go to different stations, follow instructions in Chinese and perform some acts in order to win the game. Later on, the winning team got the first tastes of smores made during 篝火(campfire).
After yesterday’s downpour the villagers at 森林湖 couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful, sunny day today. The cold weather took a turn for the better as villagers played under the warmth of the Minnesota summer sun, enjoying activities such as badminton, canoeing, and soccer. One of the greatest things about learning through immersion is that it isn’t all books and papers. Though students do attend two classes to help them learn grammar and vocabulary, a great portion of what they learn here at 森林湖 is learned through playing games. Games are a great way to motivate kids to learn and at 森林湖 we turn everything we can into a game, from cabin cleaning competitions to who can sing the loudest, from ping pong to chess, there’s always a new and exciting game around the corner.
This morning villagers woke up to thunderstorms and rain-showers, making classes like ping-pong and soccer, which meet outside, difficult to teach. However, these hard working villagers refuse to let a little rain change their plans and simply study their Chinese in a new location. Today was the first day of their morning activity and another day of their rotation classes and afternoon class. Villagers worked through the cold and the rain without fear, because, as the canoeing song goes, “刮风下雨都不怕” (there’s wind and rain, but we aren’t scared). Now, the weather seems to be turning around as the sun peaks through the clouds and life at Sen Lin Hu returns to normal.
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Yesterday, 森林湖 welcomed 53 new students onto site. 35 of these hardworking students will stay until the end of the week while the remaining 18 students continue their studies over the course of the following week. These 53 students were split into five cabins（木屋) where they will live during their time at 森林湖. Each cabin is named after a well known Chinese city to begin the immersion process. When the students arrived at camp they visited stations such as the welcome table (欢迎桌子) where they received their Chinese names, the bank (银行）where they exchanged their United States currency for Chinese Ren Ming Bi, the nurse (护士）where the checked in their medicine, transportation (交通部) in order to double check their travel arrangements for their return home, customs (海关）where their contraband (cell phones, english books, etc.) was taken and stored in our office, a language proficiency test (小考试）so as to sort them into classes with students of equal skill level, and the name tag station (名牌). After all of this was completed they returned to their cabins and prepared a cabin chant to display at the campfire (篝火). Today these students began work in their small classes and signed up for two activities (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) such as dance, badminton, kung fu, paper cutting, paper folding, Chinese knotting, and ping pong.
Earlier this week SenLinHu’s four-week credit villagers drove into nearby Bemidji to participate in the city’s annual Dragon Boat Festival (龙舟塞). A team of twenty villagers trained during afternoon activities everyday for a week in preparation for the event. SenLinHu is proud to be a participant in Bemidji’s Dragon Boat Festival as we are the only group that has an immediate connection to Chinese culture. For this reason, not only did we race, but our talented villagers studying Martial Arts here at SenLinHu put on a performance and we had a part in the opening ceremonies parading our dragon as you can see in the gallery below. While we did not place, we made it very close to doing so and all our villagers came back to SenLinHu feeling very accomplished.
After a hard rain last night, we are having beautiful weather today. The sun is out and the sky is blue. In fact, we have had very nice weather for most of this session, with the exception being a very hot day on Monday.
The session is going very smoothly and the villagers are having a lot of fun learning Chinese and experiencing Chinese culture. All of our meals are Chinese meals, and the villagers have been treated to some delicious dishes. One of the highlights was a roast chicken on Monday night. Villagers are also participating in Chinese martial arts, calligraphy, needle work and ping pong, as well as traditional camp activities like archery and canoeing. And all in Chinese!
We are now preparing for our International Day celebration on Friday. International Day is a day when all of the villages in session meet at Waldsee, the German Language Village, to celebrate our community. This year is a special year for Concordia Language Villages, as it is our 50th summer! We invite all family and friends to International Day to help us celebrate.
The energy level and spirits here are very high as we head into the final days of the session. We hope that you will be able to join us for our closing program on Saturday, August 14th, at 10 am. If you will be attending, please plan to arrive between 9:15 and 9:50, so that we can begin on time. We look forward to seeing you there!
This week SenLinHu’s new two week villagers met their 小组课, small group classes, and partook in various 活动，activities. Check out the gallery below to see these bright new faces at 森林湖:
After having to say goodbye to our first group of two-week villagers this weekend, a whole new group of great friends, new and old, arrived to share the beauty and fun of SenLinHu with us through our second International Day in mid-August. To welcome them to our village and their 木屋，their cabins, we created 木屋口号，Cabin Cheers, and showed them off at the nightly 篝火，campfire. Check out the clips below of new villagers letting loose and joining in on silliness that is the SenLinHu community.
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As the second weekend of Second Session approached, 辅导员 (counselors) and 学分学生 (credit students) at SenLinHu were faced with the challenge of saying 再见, goodbye, to our two-week villagers. While we couldn’t bear to see them go, our Closing Ceremonies showcased their hard work, and the accompanying 武术, Martial Arts performance wowed parents, friends, and fellow villagers. Check out the videos below of our Closing Ceremony activities:
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